On Your Special Day

JustRite challenged us to use homemade flowers this week.  When I have time, I really love to make my own flowers, even though I have a lot of flowers I have purchased.  Also, with the upcoming wedding of Prince William and Kate, there were a lot of challenges for wedding/anniversary.  I decided to combine all of these.

I have to admit that I had to make this base card several times before it came out with the correct folds and cuts.  It was worth the extra effort.  Each cake layer is actually 1½”inches tall.  The bottom layer is 4 ¼” wide, the middle layer is 3”, and the top layer is 2”.  Even with the topper, the cake ends up the size of a 4¼” x 5½” card when folded up.  It did have a tendency to fall down so I added small strips of cardstock to the bottom of each section so they could only open 1” wide and that seemed to help.  Before I added these, I embossed the whole strip with a Cuttlebug embossing folder, doing one section at a time.

Each layer has a strip, punched out with a Martha Stewart border punch, across the top to look like decorative piping.  On the bottom layer I added a string of small pearls on the bottom edge.  The sentiment is from JustRite’s Birthday Centers Round set and the border is from their You Inspire Me Set.  I stamped the sentiment in red on white cardstock, cut it out with a Spellbinder circle die, and lightly sponged the edges with the red ink.  This is popped up with foam tape on top of the border which I stamped and embossed in white on cardstock that I painted with Twinkling H2O’s.  I cut it out and layered it to the right side.

On the cake top I added a decorative corner die, from Spellbinders, cut out of the same painted cardstock and tucked behind the cake.  I stamped the floral heart image, also from JustRite, in red and cut it out.  I colored parts of it and added it to the top of the cake.

Next came the flowers.  I made the tiny white flowers using a punch.  I rubbed a stylus in the center of each to bring the petals up and then glued a small one inside of a little larger one.  After adding them across the top of each layer, I added red stickles to the center of each.  The larger blue flowers were made using Spellbinders’ new Rose Creations die.  My friend, Bonnie, has made a lot of flowers and has shown me how to make some, too.  During a recent visit she shared a new technique with me that I absolutely love.  If you go to her blog you can see a lot of these flowers that she has made, along with how she came up with this technique.  We spent most of the afternoon cutting out the flower dies and then painting them with Twinkling H2O’s.  This made them very shimmery (is that a word?)  While they were still slightly damp we took a large rounded end of a stylus and pounded on them.  It had this amazing effect on them.  Then we layered them and they were gorgeous.  I took three of the smallest blue ones and added one to each cake layer, slanting from the bottom left to the upper right.  then added a white pearl to the center of each.  For the final touch, I punched out several butterflies and placed them in between the blue flowers.

This card was entered in the following challenges:

JustRite Friday Challenge #053 – Dimensional Handmade Flower Embellishment

Speedy The Cat’s Friends Challenge #52 – Anniversary Card

Simon Says Stamps Challenge – Anything Goes

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 44 – Red, White, and Blue and/or Wedding Card

Sentimental Sundays challenge #52 – Punchy plus Sentiment

Stampin For the Weekend Challenge #8 – Wedding/Anniversary

Totally Papercrafts Challenge #63 – Weddings

Totally Stampalicious Challenge - Food
The Pixie Cottage Challenge #67 - It' A Royal Wedding
The Shabby Tea Room Challenge Week #59 - Butterfly Wishes/Inspiration Phote

Faith Is...

Felt a bit ill today so I wasn’t too productive around the house.  Finally felt up to making my way to my craft room to attack a card I have been working on.  Note that I did not use the word “play”.  If you saw my last post I talk about cards that you have to really work on to get what you want.  This was one of those.  It came out how I really wanted it, but I made a lot of mistakes on the way and had to redo quite a few things.  I had a really hard time determining the best layer colors to keep one from over powering the others or take away from the image.  It is finally ready to present.

I have a wonderful new set of stamps from Sparkle N Sprinkle that I have been playing with called Bird Swirl.  It has some of the sweetest images and I love the sentiments that are included.  The Faith Is…Bird sentiment was just asking to be used and I had just the technique to use with it.  I punched a small circle out of a Post It, using as much of the sticky end as possible.  I placed it in the middle of my white cardstock, which I cut extra large, and then sponged various inks around it.  I used yellow, orange, red, blue, and black in that order.  Then I removed the circle and sponged over lightly with yellow. 

I used the images Swirl Bird Bath, Swirl Branch, and Singing Bird from the set and laid them out to fit in the “window”.  I had made templates by cutting the window die out of a scrap piece of cardstock and used both the window area and the cut out frame to determine how the stamps needed to be place.  I laid the stamps upside down so I could simply press my acrylic block on top of them and they were ready to stamp with the correct placement.  Then I stamped them in Versamark on top of the inked cardstock and embossed them, using Midnight Madness Embossing Powder.  Make sure you give the background ink time to dry before adding the image.  I also used Static Free to make sure this ultra fine sparkly embossing powder only stuck to my stamped images.

I took a piece of decorative cardstock and cut out the window in the center.  I centered the window over the stamped image (use your cut out window frame to help you know where you want to place it over the image).  I taped the two pieces together and trimmed any access off the sides of the inked piece (remember that I made it extra large to help with this placement).  I layered this on dark brown cardstock, then on a layer of cream with the top and bottom edges punched with border punch.  This is then layered onto some decorative green cardstock and the dark brown card base.  I cut a window frame out of dark brown and cream.  I cut the cream frame vertically down the center, then place each side under the dark brown frame, slightly to each side, to give a cream “shadow” affect.  This helped it show up better when I popped it up with foam tape, centered over the “window”.  Oh, I almost forgot, I added some clear embossable acetate behind the frame to look like glass.

I stamped the Faith Is…Bird sentiment in dark brown on a cream oval and sponged the edges with yellow and just a little red ink.  I layered it on top of a green scalloped die and placed it on the bottom left corner of the window frame.  I added three small flower buttons around the sentiment, then added small orange pearls to the middle of each flower and slightly larger ones in sets of three in the top and bottom right corners.

This card was entered into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamps Challenge – Emboss It
Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge – Some Buttons

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #108 – Pile It On:  At least 5 layers

Aifactory Challenges AIF#077 – Flowers

CES Challenge #33 – Spring Colors/Images

The Corrosive Challenge #113 – Animals

Craft Your Passions Challenge #55 – Show Us Your Layers

Stamp Challenges – Recipe:  Flowers, Buttons, and Sparkle

Totally Gorjuss Challenge 77 – Bling It On
Basic Grey Challenge #42 - Easter/Spring (striped decorative paper)

Elegantly Framed

Have you ever had an idea for a card and as you work on it, everything falls in place, and the card actually ends up better than what you had planned?  That is what happened with this card.  Many times I end up with a card that is totally different than what I started with because my original idea doesn’t work or I keep coming up with new ideas and end up with something much more elaborate and complicated.  Though I usually am happy how it turns out, it takes a lot of extra time and effort to get it to that point.  In this case, I only had to make two changes from my original idea and it was pretty quick and I was very satisfied with the end result. 

I love white cards but have a really hard time not adding a lot of color, at least to the image.  My goal with this card was to only use white and gold and to make an embossed, shaped card.  I used a Spellbinder die for the card shape.  Since I haven’t invested in any Grands yet, this is one of my largest dies that isn’t a square or rectangle.  I started by embossing a piece of white cardstock using a Cuttlebug CutNEmboss folder – my newest one call Carly.  So pretty.  This was my first change – I had originally planned to use a different folder.  After running it through the folder, I centered my die on top of it and cut out the shape.  I took a gold leafing pen and ran it around the outer edge and then on the edge of the cut window in the center.  I took a second piece of white cardstock and folded it in half.  I used the same Spellbinder die and lined it up so that part of the folded side of the card remained inside of the cut area so you actually get a card that opens and closes.

For the image, I stamped and embossed it in gold, centered on the front of the shaped card.  This stamp is from Sweet Stamps and can be found here.   I stamped and embossed it a second time on a scrap piece of cardstock and heat set both.  I cut the three flowers out from the scrap piece, cutting all the way to the center circle between each petal.  I curled each petal back and then layered each flower on a mouse pad and made circular motions with a stenciling stylus in the center, pressing  down gently, and working toward the outer section of the center circle.  I used foam tape to add them to the original image on the card and added gold pearls to each center.  I added the dry embossed shape on top of it, popping it up with foam tape, also.  Thank goodness I had stamped my image pretty much right in the center so it lined up right with the cut out window.  You do not have any flexibility with the top layer as it must lineup with the outer edges of the card.

Here is where I made my second change, which I think really made the card.  I was looking at my gold ribbon, trying to pick the perfect one to add a bow.  I found this great white and gold cording and added it with a very thin line of glue around the gold edged window.  I had picked out some beautiful ribbon to still add the bow and even made a great double bow, but it was just too much.  The elegant simplicity of the cording was just perfect.   I purposely left off a sentiment because with the image and coloring I felt this card could be very multi-purpose – wedding/anniversary card, birthday card, sympathy card, spring/Easter card or just thinking of you!!

This card was entered in the following challenges:

Sweet Stamps Challenge 11 – Frame It

Joan’s Garden’s Weekly Challenge #15 – Color:  White and Gold/Used some Embossing/Few Embellishments/Easter Card

Speedy the Cat’s Friends Challenge #52 – Anniversary Card

Simon Says Stamps Challenge – Emboss it (wet and dry)
CES Challenge #33 - Spring Colors/Images
Creative Crafty World Challenge - Weddings or Anniversary
Cute Card Thursday Challenge #161 - No Text
Totally Gorjuss Challenge 77 - Bling It On!
Totally Papercrafts Challenge #63 - Weddings

Carrots, Carrots, Carrots!!

One more quick card for the day.  I have had this stamp sitting on my table for quite a while and could not let the day go by without completing this card and posting it. 

This card started with an orange card base.  The next layer is some decorative pink cardstock with flowers, circle, and dots on it.  Some of the flowers are glittery, but this didn’t show up in the picture.

This image was stamped on white cardstock and colored with my Tombow markers.  These two are just toooo cute.   I used some bright green cardstock with polka dots, cut out the Spellbinder ornament die from the center, and layered it on top of the image.  I had previously cut out this “carrot” from some orange cardstock to use for a treat holder in a post here.  I still had the left over piece of cardstock tucked in my scraps so I pulled it out and cut around the “carrot window” to create a frame and used foam tape to layer it on top of the card.

I stamped the sentiment in orange distress ink on white cardstock and cut it out with an oval nestie.  I sponged the edges with with green ink and layered it onto a smaller orange “carrot” that I popped up in the bottom right corner.  I added bright green polka dot bows to the top of both carrots.

For additional embellishment, I punched each corner of the green layer and added a bright orange jewel.  I added an Easter egg to the center of the bow at the top of the carrot window and two little grass buttons at the bottom.  Then I glued a few of my little eggs, purchased at Hobby Lobby, to the grass.  What a fun card.

Now it is time to get to bed so I can be ready for work tomorrow.  I have been on spring break for a week and my sleep patterns are totally off.  Before I can curl up in bed I have to go out in the dark and plant some flowers.  I totally forgot about some wonderful plants a friend gave me yesterday from her beautiful flower garden.  I had layed the box in the back in the shade.  Since I am not sure where I want to plant them and it is now pitch dark outside, I am planning to plant them in some big pots for now and can transplant them at a later date.  Good night!!!

This card was entered into the following challenges:

House Mouse and Friends Challenge #93 - Easter

CES Challenge #33 – Spring Colors/Images

The Corrosive Challenge #113 – Animals

Craft Your Passion Challenge #54 – Dots (green polka dot paper)

The Crafty Pad Challenge 118 – Circles

Crazy 4 Challenges C4C83 – Easter Card

Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge – Springtime

Stamp Challenges – Recipe:  Flowers, Buttons, and Sparkle

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #108 – Pile-It-On: At least 5 layers (carrot frame, green, white, pink floral, orange)

Totally Gorjuss Challenge #77 – Bling It On

Easter Eggs

Happy Easter !!  What a wonderful day.  We had beautiful weather, thought it was a bit hot.  Spent the day with my family (hubby and daughter) and had a delicious dinner.  My daughter went to a friend’s house for a few hours this afternoon to dye eggs.  When they are 18 years old you don’t usually get to spend too much time doing this with them.  A group of them wanted to do it together so off she went.  She brought home three – colored and made into Pokemon.  I think I will dwell on my memories of egg dying when she was younger. 

I did sneak into my room this afternoon to complete a few more cards.  I guess my daughter inspired me because I just had to use this adorable House Mouse image.  I love these stamps and collect them, but don’t seem to use them very often.  I am working on changing that.  They are cute on my shelf, but even cuter on a card.  This card has a light yellow base with a layer of lovely decorative cardstock - aqua and white flowers on a purple background.

I colored the image with Tombow markers, cut it out with a circle nestie, and layered it on a light yellow scalloped circle nestie.  This is layered on a Spellbinder medallion cut out of teal cardstock and stenciled with a little purple ink.  I layered this onto a white scalloped nestie to help it stand out a bit more from the background paper.  I popped this up on the card with foam tape.  The aqua flowers on the background paper are very shimmery but the card still needed a bit more bling so I added some little jewels.

Hope you had a wonderful day and were able to spend some time with family and remembering the true sacrifice made for each of us.

This card was entered into the following challenges:

House Mouse and Friends Challenge #93 - Easter

Aifactory Challenges AIF#077 – Flowers in Bloom

CES Challenge #33 – Spring Colors/Images

The Corrosive Challenge #113 – Animals

The Crafty Pad Challenge 118 – Circles

Crazy 4 Challenges C4C83 – Easter Card

Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge – Springtime

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #108 – Pile-It-On: At least 5 layers (Image on white, yellow scalloped circle, tulip medallion, white scalloped circle, floral cardstock, yellow card base)

Totally Gorjuss Challenge #77 – Bling It On

Cute Card Thursday Challenge 161 - No Text

MAGNOLIA - licious

When the Magnolia stamps first came out, I was not into the cute stamps but since then they have grown on me.  I still do not actually own any but borrowed one from a friend to make this card.

I stamped the image and colored it with Tombow markers.  I outlined the entire image with light grey to help it stand out a bit more, then cut it out with a Spellbinder die and sponged a little pink ink around the edges.  This is layered onto a bright pink decorative paper, which is layered on top of a light grey layer, then on white.

I added flowers (pink and dark grey) and green decorative rectangles to complete the card and meet my challenges. For a final touch I added pink buttons, green buttons, and two little green w/Polka dot bows.

This card is entered into the following challenges:

Aifactory Challenges AIF#077 – Flowers

Crafts and Me Challenges #31 – Pink and Sweet

Cute Card Thursday Challenge #161 – No Text

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #107 – Magnolia-licious:  Use a Magnolia Stamp

Paper Pretties Challenge #150 – Color Challenge:  Pink Green, plus Neutral (grey)

The Pink Elephant Challenge #98 – Colors:  Pink, White, Green, Grey
Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge - Springtime
CES Challenge #33 - Spring Colors/Image

Bugaboo Easter

I recently downloaded this great Freebie stamp at the Catch the Bug Blog and have been wanting to use it for an Easter card.  After printing it out, I colored it with Tombow markers and cut it out with a Spellbinder die. 

 I layered it on blue, cut out with a slightly larger die.  I used foam tape to layer it on decorated card stock that I sponged the edges with purple and layered on a yellow card base.

I cut three 1” squares out of purple striped cardstock, sponged the edges with purple ink, and added them to the left side of the card with foam tape.  Then I punched out thre orange “carrots” using the smallest Spellbinder ornament die, sponged the edges with dark orange ink, and added loops of ribbon to the back of the top.  I used foam tape to add one “carrot” to each purple square.  Really fun card and adorable bunnies and chick.  Perfect for a child.  Or even an adult – we like cute, too.

This card is entered into the following challenges:

Aifactory Challenges AIF#077 – Flowers

Catch the Bug Challenge – Easter

Crafts and Me Challenges #31 – Pink and Sweet

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge #79 – Children’s Cards

The Crafty Pad Challenge #117 – Easter

Creative Inspirations Challenge #57 – Easter

Cute Card Thursday Challenge #161 – No Text

Incy Wincy Designs Challenge #90 – Bright and Bold

The Pixie Cottage Challenge #66 – Sketch

Egg Hunt

I just had to do some more playing with these baskets made from Spellbinder dies.  For this basked I used a small square of cream cardstock.  I used a border punch on one side and cut out the “basket with a circle die.  The handle was cut out of the same cream cardstock using two different size oval dies.  I embossed all pieces with an embossing folder and sponged a little yellow ink and then some brown ink around the edges and across the embossing.

The yellow card base is cut out with a scalloped circle die, with the folded edge slightly inside of the cutting area.  I rubbed the scalloped edges lightly with Versamark and dipped them in Log Cabin Embossing Powder from Sparkle N Sprinkle.  It is a very rich brown with a gold sparkle in it.  After heat setting the powder, I added some Crystal Ice iridescent white glitter, also from Sparkle N Sprinkle, on the inside part of the scallops.  On top of this I layered a circle of aqua cardstock that I embossed and sponged with aqua ink on the embossing and brown ink around the edge.  I added the basket to the bottom right side of the card, popping up the basket bottom and tucking some tiny plastic Easter eggs inside the basket.

For the images, I stamped and embossed the Happy Bunny [3435-426B], Easter Borders [3434-426G], and the Easter sign from Easter Accessories [3436-426E], using Versamark ink and the same Log Cabin Embossing powder.  All of these stamps are part of Sparkle N Sprinkle's Easter Chicks Set.  After heat setting them, I colored them with markers and cut them out.  I actually made several of each image.  I placed the adorable bunny on the left side of the circle.  The little basket he is carrying was cut out from a second image and popped up on top of the original with foam tape.  I cut out the hand and bent it up a bit so it looked more realistic.  I only used the Easter Egg border from the borders set and popped up one across the bottom of the basket.  Then I used a second one and cut it so part of it crossed over the feet of the bunny and the other part is at the top of the card.  I added the little Easter sign to the basket handle and added a sparkly brown bow.

Sparkle N Sprinkle is having a special sale right now so go check out all their great products here.

This card is entered in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamps Challenge – Emboss It

The Crafty Padd Challenge #117 – Easter

Creative Inspirations Challenge – Easter

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge (FTTC114) – Colors:  Aqua, Brown, Yellow

Incy Wincy Designs Challenge #90 – Bright and Bold

Little Claire’s challenge #5 – Animals

Ooh La La Challenge #78 – Aqua, Bling, & Sentiment

Sentimental Sundays Challenge #51 – Celebrate Spring/Easter plus Sentiment
Totally Gorjuss Challenge #76 - No Patterned Paper

Party Animal

Here is another cute little Easter card.  I have had this idea of making some type of Easter basket using my nesties so that is what I decided to try on this card. 

I took a square of the pink polka dot paper that was a little wider than the basket I wanted and punched one side with a Martha Stewart border punch.  Then I lined up an oval die to cut out the bottom half of with the punch edge as the top of the “basket”.  For the handle I simply layered a smaller scallop oval inside of a slightly larger scalloped oval and cut it out.  It came out just as I pictured.  I did sponge the edges with a bit of ink to help it stand out more.

The image is from Penny Black and was stamped in black ink and colored with colored pencils and gamsol.  I cut it out and layered it behind the basked and added the handle behind the image.

The whole thing is popped up on a large scalloped oval, then layered onto aqua polka dot cardstock and a pink card base.  On the right side I tucked a strip of white polka dot cardstock underneath the large oval.  I added a strip of ribbon on it and a pink border punched out with the same Martha Stewart border punch as the basket.  I added a few Easter eggs that I punched out and embossed with a Sizzix folder and sponged with ink.  Added a quick egg sentiment that I cut out and a little bow on the basket handle.   The final touch was a cute flower with an Easter egg button in the center (picked up the buttons at Hobby Lobby).  What a fun card.  I have another idea to use with the “basket” so be watching.

This card was entered in the following challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 147 – Easter Extravaganza

Aifactory Challenge AIF#076 – Party Animal
Delightful Challenges - Easter
Simon SaysStamps Challenge - Emboss It
Art Impressions Challenge #12 - Anything Goes

Whoopsie Daisy Challenge  - Free and Easy

Totally Papercrafts Challenge #62 – Springtime

Sketch Saturday Challenge #151 – Sketch

The Shabby Tea Room Challenge Week #58 – Inspiration/Pastels/Stripes (embossed eggs to give them strips and sponged ink on them)

Sentimental Sunday Challenge #51 – Celebrate Spring/Easter plus Sentiment

Paper Cutz Challenge #87 – Buttons and Bows

Ooh La La Challenge #78 – Aqua, Bling, and Sentiment

Little Clair’s Challenge #5 – Animals

Flourishes Bring Back the Beautiful – The Beauty of Spring Colors

Creative Inspirations Challenge #57 – Easter

Crafty Pad Challenge #117 – Easter

Craft Your Passion Challenge #54 – You’ve Been Spotted (dots)

Crafts and Me Challenge #31 – Pink and Sweet

Spring

I looked outside today and saw so many flowers blooming in my back yard.  If you visit my friend, Bonnie’s, site here you will see tons of flowers from her yard.  Spring is so beautiful here.  Alas, we also get a lot of rain.  It rained over the weekend but we just missed out on all of the tornados, thank goodness.

I have these great stamps from Sparkle N Sprinkle that are just perfect for a spring card.  I also have some very sparkly embossing powders from them and I decided to make use of a new one I just received.  For this card I used the cute umbrella from their stamp set Spring Swirl and stamped it with Versamark ink and embossed it with Midnight Madness opaque embossing powder.  I did the same for the cute little flowers from the top of their Easter Borders stamp, included in the Easter Chicks set.  I colored them in with markers, then cut out the images with a Spellbinder Oval die and layered this on a bright pink scalloped oval.  I embossed a second umbrella, cut it out, and layered it with foam tape on top of the first image.

This card has a layer of decorative green cardstock, then a layer of black, then a base card of the same bright pink cardstock.  I ran a strip of black ribbon with small white flowers across the card and then just below it I added a strip of fun pink fiber.  I used foam tape to add the die cut image to the front of the card on top of this.  I angled it slightly and then added a combination of black and pink paper flowers on both sides of the bottom of the oval.  As a final touch I added two bright pink pearls in the middle of the larger pink flowers.  In the top left corner I stamped “Hello Spring”, also from Spring Swirl set, and embossed with the same Midnight Madness embossing powder.

This card was entered in the following challenges:

Incy Wincy Designs Challenge #90 – Bright and Bold

Paper Romance Challenge #46 – Paper Flowers

Sentimental Sunday Challenge #51 – Celebrate Spring/Easter plus Sentiment

Stamp Challenges – April Showers

Top Tip Challenge #30 – Open Challenge

Totally Papercrafts Challenge #62 – Springtime

DYSY #15 – Scallops

Cute Card Thursday Challenge #160 – Weather Inspired

Charisma Cardz challenge #15 – Pink, Black, & Green

God's Love and Faithfulness

I am on spring break and really enjoying sleeping in.  However, I have spent the last two days helping my daughter with her taxes.  We usually just do the ez form but all her friends had used some program and received great returns so she was sure if we did the same thing, she would too.  Well, I just don’t trust any program and what her friends say so I read everything.  It took forever and I am still not sure I understood it all.  It was in “Gov” talk.  We finally submitted it at 8pm last night.  Beat the deadline but I was exhausted.  I decided I deserved a real break today.  I lay around a bit but then started to do some clean up.  Finally I retired to my craft room for some true fun.  I have wanted to do a wonderful Easter card that showed what Easter is really all about.

I started with a white card base and a layer of deep purple.  On top of that I put a layer of some new Basic Grey cardstock I found this weekend at the scrapbook store.  It is labeled cupcake/make a wish/cup1103 so hopefully that helps if you want to find some.  It is a lovely decorative teal color.

For my top layer I decided to experiment.  I used a Spellbinder decorative label, laying it horizontal across the top of the paper, and cut it out.  Then I used a second decorative label and cut it vertically, with the top side overlapping what I had already cut.  I needed a little more at the top of the “cross” so I slid the vertical die up but actually laid it behind the cardstock and just tucked the top part through the opening and laid it where I wanted the top of the cross.  When I ran it through the die cut machine, I only ran it enough to cut that top part I wanted and rolled it back out so the rest of the die wouldn’t crease the cardstock around the cross.  It came out great!!  My tip to you is to experiment with making different windows using more than one die – who knows how it will turn out.  I put another dark purple layer behind my window but cut out the center so when I added it to the front of the card you could see that lovely Basic Grey design cardstock through the cross opening.  I lightly sponged the edges of the cross opening with purple ink.

For sentiments I used two stamps from Our Daily Bread Designs’ Faith set.  I stamped the word “Faith” in deep purple Brilliance ink right in the top center of the cross, directly on the Basic Grey layer.  It is subtle but still shows.  Then I stamped the verse in the same purple ink on a light lilac cardstock, cut it out with a die, sponged the edges with the same ink, and layered it on a dark purple die cut label.  I added it to the card with foam tape to pop it up.  I found some little ceramic calla lilies in the bridal department at Hobby Lobby so I tucked three of these with leaves behind the verse label.

I had planned to make a simple, elegant card to meet the requirements of a certain challenge, but I just couldn’t do it!!  It just looked too bare.  I had already failed by using more than 3 layers, so I went for it.  I added two decorative corner die cuts to the top corners and added some wonderful pearl swirls around the cross.  I found these swirls at Michael’s awhile back and absolutely love them.  Should have bought more since I can’t find them anymore.  I added two larger pearls on both ends of the verse label.  Then I made myself stop.  As lovely as all the color is on this “simple” card, it did still meet the requirements of Our Daily Bread Designs Shining The Light Challenge of “no color.”  Seem kind of confusing?  We actually couldn’t do any coloring ourselves.  We could use colored ink and could sponge some ink so I managed that.

Though our family did an occasional egg hunt, we always read the story of the crucifiction in the Bible and reminded ourselves of the true meaning of Easter.  The most memorable Easter for me is when my oldest daughter came to me and said she wanted to ask Jesus in her heart.  Even at the age of five she understood what Christ had done for her.  Easter is all about God's love for us and Christ dying on the cross for us.    With this card I want to say thank you to God for His sacrifice for me and my family.

I entered this card in the following challenges:

Our Daily Bread Designs Shining The Light Challenge #57 – No Coloring

Our Daily Bread Designs Stamping In Time:  On Assignment Challenge #32 – Easter

Basic Grey Challenge #42 – Easter/Spring

The Crafty Pad Challenge #117 – Easter

Creative Inspirations Challenge #57 – Easter

Delightful Sketches Challenges – Easter

Ooh La La Challenge #78 – Aqua, Bling & Sentiment

Phindy’s Friday Challenge #51 – Color Challenge:  Purple and Teal

Sentimental Sundays Challenge #51 – Celebrate Spring/Easter plus Sentiment

Top Tip Challenge #30 – Open Challenge plus Tip (You can create amazing windows in your card by cutting out with a mix of dies – this is how I did the cross window on my card)

Totally Papercrafts Challenge #62 – Springtime (can be anything)